Jie was sure Black Zetsu had noticed him.
But in this era, Black Zetsu was still alone. He had no real forces under him, and even the Rinnegan, the key to reviving Kaguya, had not appeared yet.
Unless Black Zetsu came to him on his own, Jie had no interest in wasting time on him. It was not that he could not deal with Black Zetsu. This simply was not Jie's own timeline, and he had no reason to deal with every hidden danger in this era.
Besides, Jie was a little curious.
When he gathered the tailed beasts, recreated the Ten-Tails, and cut off Black Zetsu's last hope, what kind of face would Black Zetsu make?
Thinking of that, Jie smiled coldly and sped up.
The One-Tail, Shukaku, was also known as Shukaku of the Sand. Like the other tailed beasts, it had massive chakra, but its real specialties were sand and wind. Its Drilling Air Bullet was powerful enough to rival a small Tailed Beast Bomb.
When Jie reached the location found by the Uchiha and Senju, endless yellow sand stretched in every direction.
Jie was not surprised.
As expected of Shukaku. Even while roaming free, it had chosen the place most suited to its power.
He looked around.
There was nothing but rolling sand in every direction. No trace of Shukaku could be seen.
But in his senses, a huge mass of chakra was hiding not far ahead, buried beneath the desert.
Jie nodded and walked toward it without hesitation.
As he drew closer, a long spear made entirely of sand suddenly dropped from above and stabbed into the ground in front of him.
"Human, this is not a place you should enter."
"Shukaku-sama is in a good mood today. Leave while you still can."
A gust of sand swept past, and Shukaku's head appeared in front of Jie, glaring down at him.
Jie was a little surprised.
Shukaku had not attacked immediately. It had actually warned him first.
The tailed beasts were violent, and their chakra was wild, but they were not mindless monsters.
Jie studied the sand-formed head with interest.
Among the tailed beasts, Shukaku really was the easiest one to treat like a pet.
For a moment, Jie even wondered if he should preserve Shukaku's consciousness when creating the Ten-Tails and only take part of its chakra.
After all, the Ten-Tails did not require perfectly complete tailed-beast chakra to be restored. If part of Shukaku's chakra was missing, it would only take a little longer to recover.
Keeping Shukaku around might actually be amusing.
A little extra waiting suddenly did not sound so bad.
Below the sand, Shukaku noticed that Jie had ignored its warning and was still coming closer.
Since when could a human ignore a tailed beast's warning so openly?
Shukaku decided to teach him a lesson.
"Quicksand Waterfall!"
Shukaku controlled sand as easily as moving its own body. It did not need hand seals or even movement. With a single thought, the sand beneath Jie's feet began to shift.
The ground softened.
A strong pull came from below, trying to drag him down into the desert.
Jie sensed it clearly. The closer he moved to Shukaku, the stronger the pull became. If he retreated, nothing would happen.
Jie smiled.
The tailed beasts of this era were still surprisingly gentle.
Even now, Shukaku was not trying to kill him. It only wanted to scare him away.
Unfortunately, a little quicksand could not stop him.
Ordinary quicksand would not trouble even a chunin with decent chakra control. Shukaku's chakra made this sand stronger, but to Jie, it still felt no different from flat ground.
He walked through the sinking sand as if nothing had happened and soon arrived near Shukaku.
"Shukaku," Jie said with a smile, "isn't it boring to stay in the desert all the time?"
"I'll give you a chance. Come with me and see the wider ninja world."
The moment Jie finished speaking, the desert in front of him churned violently.
A massive tanuki slowly rose from beneath the sand.
Now that he was looking at the real Shukaku, Jie became even more satisfied.
The head alone had already amused him. Seeing the whole body only made the idea more appealing. Shukaku was a little too big, but size was not a problem for a tailed beast. It could adjust its form.
Jie made his decision.
Shukaku would be his pet.
Shukaku was furious.
It had been centuries since the Sage of Six Paths separated the tailed beasts from the Ten-Tails. In all that time, no human had ever dared to act this arrogantly in front of one of them.
Now some human brat had appeared out of nowhere, ignored its warning, and even said he wanted to take it away.
Shukaku wanted to give him a lesson he would remember.
"Damn human brat!"
"You dare speak so wildly in front of Shukaku-sama?"
Shukaku glared at him.
"Today, I'll make you understand that tailed beasts are not creatures you can offend!"
Jie tilted his head slightly.
For a moment, he was genuinely confused.
Was there something wrong with Shukaku's head?
When had he said anything that extreme?
Then Jie thought about it again. He did want to take Shukaku away and keep it as a pet.
From Shukaku's point of view, that probably was not much better.
So was he actually the bad guy here?
The thought lasted only a moment.
Even if he did not take Shukaku, it would not stay free for long. Sooner or later, Madara and Hashirama would capture the tailed beasts, and Shukaku would eventually be sealed inside a jinchūriki.
Compared with being locked away in darkness for the rest of its life, becoming Jie's pet was clearly not the worst outcome.
At least it would still get to see the world.
"Since you don't know any better, I'll give you another chance."
Jie looked at Shukaku calmly.
"You have two choices."
"Either stop resisting and become my pet peacefully."
"Or I beat you first, and then you become my pet."
He smiled.
"Choose."
Shukaku's anger exploded.
So everything it had said earlier had gone in one ear and out the other.
Worse, this human's plan was even more insulting than simple enslavement.
He wanted to keep him as a pet?
If Shukaku did not teach him a painful lesson today, the other tailed beasts would laugh at it for years.
Especially that arrogant fox with too many tails.
If Kurama heard about this, it would never let Shukaku forget it.
"Drilling Air Bullet!"
Shukaku's stomach swelled.
A massive compressed air bullet, powerful enough to rival a small Tailed Beast Bomb, blasted straight toward Jie.
Jie understood its answer.
As expected, Shukaku only looked harmless. It still had plenty of temper.
But that was fine.
Wild cats and wild tanuki always had some temper at first. Jie could use this chance to tame Shukaku's temper a little.
If he subdued it properly now, he would not have to worry about Shukaku losing its temper around the people around him later.
Jie did not dodge the air bullet.
He let it pass straight through his body. The attack slammed into the desert below and threw up a huge wave of sand.
Shukaku's small eyes widened.
Its attack had passed through him?
"What kind of ability is that?"
"My Drilling Air Bullet went straight through?"
"Have I gone blind from sleeping too long?"
Shukaku was full of confusion.
This was exactly the effect Jie wanted.
Breaking Shukaku's attack would have been easy. To him, destroying that air bullet was no different from popping an ordinary balloon.
But ignoring an attack was much more intimidating than blocking it.
That was why Jie had used Kamui, an old reward from the system.
Jie had collected too many techniques and special abilities by now. Even he sometimes had to think for a moment before remembering what he had.
And at this moment, Kamui was perfect. A spatial vortex appeared around Jie and swallowed him whole.
The next instant, he vanished from Shukaku's sight.
Shukaku was even more confused.
What kind of human was this?
Before it could figure anything out, Shukaku suddenly felt a small weight on top of its head.
The moment it realized what that weight was, Shukaku almost lost its mind from anger.
A human was sitting on its head.
A proud tailed beast had just been used as a seat.
Unforgivable.
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